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Int’l flights reduced to 20% in Pakistan

Inbound air traffic will operate at 20 per cent of the total current quantum, while there is no change in the existing Category C list countries…reports Asian Lite News

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday issued an advisory reducing the number of inbound international flights to 20 per cent to curb a further rise in Covid-19 cases.

“Amid high disease prevalence in various parts of the world and current disease situation in the country with corresponding extreme stress on the critical care system. Pakistan has decided to significantly reduce inbound International Air Travel from 5 May to 20th May,” said the NCOC in a statement on Twitter.

It was not immediately clear which routes and air carriers will be affected.

The NCOC said that the decision will be reviewed on May 18.

Inbound air traffic will operate at 20 per cent of the total current quantum, while there is no change in the existing Category C list countries.

“Pakistani passport holders (stranded/short term visa) are allowed to travel to Pakistan subject to exemption by the committee as per procedures in vogue,” the NCOC statement read.

All inbound travellers to Pakistan, including those from the Category C list countries, must have a negative repeat PCR test before travelling to Pakistan (maximum 72 hours old) while a rapid antigen test will be done on arrival at the airport.

Negative cases will undergo 10 days of self-quarantine at home with stringent TTO protocols, Geo TV reported.

Pakistan

The statement said that positive cases will be shifted by the provincial/ district administration to a self-paid facility for 10 days quarantine with TTO of contacts (if any) and a repeat PCR test will be conducted on the 8th day of the quarantine period.

In case of a negative result, the passenger will be allowed to proceed home. However, in case of a positive result, the passenger will either undergo an additional quarantine period or be shifted to hospital as per the advice of health authorities.

The NCOC stated that registration on the Passtrack App by all inbound travellers before travelling to Pakistan is mandatory, however, deportees are exempted from registration on the app.

Pakistan has seen record deaths in recent days from the coronavirus, and stricter restrictions on movement and gathering in public are planned for the upcoming Eid holiday.

Officials are worried the country’s health care system, already under strain, could reach breaking point if more contagious variants of the virus begin to spread, as has happened in neighbouring India.

On Saturday, authorities reported 4,696 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours and 146 deaths from the disease.

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More travel miseries as UAE suspends flights from India

The travel ban includes inbound transit passengers with exception of transit flights coming to the UAE and heading to India, the GCAA said in a statement on Thursday … reports Asian Lite News

More countries are taking action against India as the Covid cases surge in Delhi and other places. The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA) have announced the suspension of all inbound flights for national and international carriers coming from the Republic of India.

The travel ban includes inbound transit passengers with exception of transit flights coming to the UAE and heading to India, the GCAA said in a statement on Thursday.

The GCAA indicated that it is required for those coming from India through other countries that the period of stay in those countries is not less than 14 days to be allowed to enter the country, as of 23:59 on Saturday, April 24, 2021, for 10 days that can be extended.

Cargo flights between the two countries will continue, as usual, the statement added.

The GCAA affirmed that nationals of the UAE and diplomatic missions between the two countries, official delegations, businessmen’s planes and golden residence holders are excluded from this decision, provided that they should take preventive measures that include a 10-day quarantine and a PCR test at the airport as well as another test on the fourth and eighth days of entering the country.  According to the decision, the period of PCR test is reduced from 72 hours to 48 hours, provided that the tests issued by accredited laboratories bearing the QR Code are accepted.

This comes in response to the proactive precautionary and preventive health measures issued by all concerned authorities in the country to limit the spread of the COVID pandemic-19, the statement added.

The GCAA said, “The decision to suspend flights came after studying and evaluating the epidemiological situation in the friendly Republic of India and within the framework of continuous coordination and cooperation with all relevant authorities inside and outside the country that continuously monitor developments in the situation to maintain the security and safety of civil aviation.”

The concerned authorities, under the umbrella of the NCEMA, follow up the global situation to take appropriate decisions that ensure the continuity of the work system within the country, while at the same time reducing the risk of the spread of the pandemic.

The authority called on all travellers affected by the decision to follow up and communicate with the airlines to amend and schedule their flights and to ensure their safe return to their final destinations without any delay or other obligations.

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Only vaccinated pilgrims allowed in Mecca

Permits for Umrah and to visit the Grand Mosque will be granted to those who have received two Covid-19 vaccine shots…reports Asian Lite News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbLDg83tJc8

Only pilgrims and worshippers who have been vaccinated against the novel coronsvirus or have recovered will be allowed into the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabias Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced.

Permits for Umrah (Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca) and to visit the Grand Mosque will be granted to those who have received two Covid-19 vaccine jabs; those who have received a first dose at least 14 days before their visit to Medina and Mecca; and those who have had the virus and recovered, Arab News quoted the Ministry as saying on Monday.

Before embarking on a trip, a visitor’s vaccination status will have to be registered on Saudi Arabia’s Covid-19 app, ‘Tawakkalna’, which was launched last year to track the Covid-19 situation in the Kingdom.

Also read:Saudi’s anti-discrimination policy soon

According to the Ministry, the people who wish to visit the two mosques or perform Umrah will have to register via the Tawakkalna app and the Umrah app, ‘Eatmarna’.

It added that the two apps are the only platforms that issue genuine permits.

Nearly 10,000 Grand Mosque workers have already been inoculated as part of the Ramadan operational plan, Arab News reported.

Five areas will be available for prayers at the Grand Mosque.

More than 13 million worshippers wearing masks and observing physical distancing rules have visited the mosques since the seven-month prayer and Umrah suspension was lifted last October.

Also read:‘Saudi Female Business Leaders To Break The Jinx’

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British Airways to launch digital vaccine passports

British Airways (BA) will introduce digital vaccine passports in time for the return of international travel in May, when Britons are allowed to travel for their holidays, a media report said on Sunday.

The airline will ask those who have had two doses of a coronavirus vaccine to log their vaccination details with their BA app, said a media report.

The new BA decision was announced at a time when the Scottish Labour Party revealed passengers are bypassing the Scottish government’s hotel quarantine system by flying from other airports in Britain, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Holidays will not be allowed until May 17 at the earliest, the British government has said, but before that, on April 12, Britain will announce how and when non-essential travel into and out of the country can resume.

Sean Doyle, who was appointed BA’s chief executive last October, called on Britain to work with other governments to allow vaccines and health apps to open up travel, after a year when minimal flying has left many airlines on life support.

“I think people who’ve been vaccinated should be able to travel without restriction. Those who have not been vaccinated should be able to travel with a negative test result,” he said.

On February 22, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his long-anticipated “roadmap” exiting the lockdown. The Monday reopening of schools in England was the first part of the four-step plan, which Johnson said was designed to be “cautious but irreversible”.

Other parts of Britain, including Wales and Scotland, have also unveiled plans to ease the restrictions.

Experts have warned Britain is “still not out of the woods” amid concerns over new variants and the risks of the public breaching restriction rules.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines.

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Train Fares Rise above Inflation

Millions of train passengers in England and Wales will be hit by higher fares from Monday onwards as fares are expected to rise above inflation for the first time in eight years.

Ticket prices will increase by around 2.6 per cent, leading to accusations that the UK government is “pricing the railways out of existence”, Xinhua news agency quoted the Evening Standard newspaper as saying in a report.

The price hike represents the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation from July 2020, plus 1 percentage point, according to the newspaper.

Increases in around half of fares, including season tickets on most commuter routes, are regulated by the British, Scottish and Welsh governments, media reports said.

Passengers in Wales face a similar increase, whereas the Scottish government is implementing smaller rises of 1.6 per cent and 0.6 per cent for peak and off-peak travel respectively, the report said.

Examples of the potential fare hikes include a Brighton-London annual season ticket going up by 129 pounds ($180) to 5,109 pounds ($7,154) and a Manchester-Glasgow off-peak return increasing by 2.30 pounds ($3) to 90.60 pounds ($126), said the Evening Standard newspaper.

Fare hikes in England have mirrored RPI since January 2014, but the Department for Transport (DfT) axed the policy due to the “unprecedented taxpayer support” handed to the rail industry during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The British, Scottish and Welsh governments took over rail franchise agreements from train operators in March 2020, following the collapse in demand for travel caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is expected to cost the government alone around 10 billion pounds by mid-2021, said the newspaper.

Fares usually become more expensive on the first working day of every year, but the 2021 rise was deferred due to the pandemic, said the newspaper.

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Travel UK News

Hotel Quarantining Introduced to Arrivals in UK

All British and Irish citizens and UK residents who arrive in England after being in a high-risk Covid country now have to quarantine in hotels, officials said.

The “red list” of 33 countries includes Portugal, Brazil and South Africa. The new regulations, which aim to stop Covid-19 variants entering the country, apply to arrivals who have been in one of those places in the past 10 days, the BBC reported on Monday.

They will have to pre-book and pay 1,750 pounds to spend 10 days quarantining in the government-sanctioned hotels.

That covers the cost of the hotel, transport and testing.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the emergence of new variants meant the government “must go further” with its travel restrictions.

The government says it has struck deals with 16 hotels so far, providing 4,963 rooms for the new quarantine system, with a further 58,000 rooms currently on standby.

“The rules coming into force today will bolster the quarantine system and provide another layer of security against new variants at the border,” Hancock said.

The health secretary added that the measures were “important to protect our vaccination programme”.

On Sunday, the government announced that more than 15 million people in the UK had received their first coronavirus jab, in what the prime minister described as a “significant milestone”.

Meanwhile, all travellers arriving into Scotland from abroad by air – rather than just those from the 33 “high risk” countries – now have to go into quarantine hotels.

People travelling from red list countries to Wales and Northern Ireland will be required to book and pay for quarantine in England, as neither destination has any direct international flights.

Any passenger required to stay in a quarantine hotel in England needs to reserve a room online in advance using a government portal.

The additional rate for one extra adult or a child aged over 12 is 650 pounds, and for a child aged five to 12 it is 325 pounds.

Those who fail to quarantine in such hotels face fines of 5,000 to 10,000 pounds, while anyone who lies on their passenger locator form about having been in a country on the red list faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

A new testing regime for all travellers arriving in England has also started, with two tests required during the quarantine process.

They will be required to get a test on days two and eight of their 10-day quarantine period, whether they are isolating at home or in a hotel. The tests, conducted by NHS Test and Trace, will cost travellers 210 pounds.

Those who do not take the tests could face a 2,000 pounds fine.

On Sunday the government said another 258 people had died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 117,166. There were another 10,972 confirmed cases.